Finding a Way
by whatsernamex
Summary: A mysterious enemy that goes by the name Aeron emerges and takes over Aaa, leaving the land's favorite heroine in an unfortunate state. After getting used to life after the takeover, Marshall Lee finally puts the pieces together to take back the land of Aaa and fight for the survivors and the fallen. Was this an Ice Queen scheme? Who is Aeron? Will Aaa ever be the same?


My name is Fionna. I'm sixteen years old, and I am the hero of Aaa... right? My identity flashes behind my eyelids, through all crevices of my mind as a frantic Doctor Prince tries to keep me awake.

"What's your name?" He fishes for my answer, hoping to get anything out of me that lets him know I'm still alive and semi-functional. I try to speak, but I can't bring my mouth to form the words. What the Bjork, why can't I speak? Come to think of it, I can't even open my eyes. My mind fades in and out, trying to cling to any life left in my body. I'm able to open my eyes for seconds at a time, not really seeing. What glimpses I get from the seconds of sight are blurred by a mix of bright lights and fading consciousness. Around me I can faintly hear the commands of my doctor, doing his best to save the frail, practically lifeless pile of limbs that I must be.

Though I can hear many efforts to save my life, I am slipping away – I can feel it. I think of all my friends, Cake, Gumball, BMO, Marshall Lee, and, heck, even Ice Queen was sometimes a not-so-bad person. If my eyes fill with tears, I can't tell; my body seems to be drifting away as the time goes on. Clustered with emotions, my mind tries to get a grasp on the situation. How did I end up here? I remember sharp pains in my stomach, fighting with my sword with hundreds of people behind me. Why were we fighting again? My mind scrambles for the answer, coming up short. I think of everything and nothing all at once, trying and failing to cling to myself, and suddenly the darkness engulfs me, ripping me away from my home of Aaa.

 _Three and half years later._

I feel the wind shred past my face as I speed down the dimly lit hallway, the shrilling screams echoing around me. I zip around a corner and press myself against the wet cave wall as a mass of excited children continue running, calling out "Marshall!"

Killing time in the cave can be hard sometimes, but, I gotta say, watching over the kids makes it go by a little quicker sometimes. If someone would've asked me years ago if I could watch their kids, I would've laughed in their face and flown off without thinking twice. Who knew being cooped up under a mountain would change me so much.

The sound of the screeching children fades, and I feel it's safe to come out of my hiding spot. As I round the corner and prepare to surprise attack the kids, I bump into one of the older survivors living in the cave. "Oh, sorry, Miss Plumberry. I didn't see you there."

She shrugs as much as an old sugar-coated plum can and said, "It's alright, I was just looking for you. Prince Gumball wants to talk to you."

I roll my eyes, "He couldn't come get me himself?"

"Oh, it's my pleasure to carry out orders from him! I will serve Prince Gumball however I can!" Her voice hints at her obvious offense to my comments while her hands shoo away the incredulous thought that Gumball would even dare to stoop so low as to carry out his own tedious errands.

"I didn't mean, ok, yeah whatever. I'll go in a minute." These delirious candy people are so loyal to that dumb wad of gum it sickens me. I can't even insult him without his followers taking personal offense to it. I turn to leave but remember what brought me over here in the first place. "Hey, would you mind looking after the kids? They ran that way," I point the old, candied fruit in the direction of the mob still in search of a very elusive vampire.

"Oh, yes! Will do! Kiddies!" She ran down the hall to find the source of the faint echoes of children's voices.

Reluctantly, I drift down the halls of the cave system towards Gumball's makeshift "command center". I hate it when he calls it that, but he didn't like my idea of "dork chamber". I watch the string of lights flicker on the walls as my thoughts drift here and there. Back when Gumball and I were first building this place, it was completely dark. It took a little getting used to, but we were lucky enough to rescue some stragglers from the Fire Kingdom, who returned the favor by lighting our intricate hiding place.

As I get closer to the dork chamber, I pass several hollowed out cubbies where some survivors have been living for…I guess three years now. It's hard to keep track of time anymore when it feels like we've been in here for an eternity. It's probably easier for me because I've been living for forever anyway, but even I'm dying of boredom. The only thing that really takes my mind off of things is going on runs for supplies, which is what Gumball is probably about to tell me to do considering it's been a while since the the cave people have seen the fruits of fresh supply shopping.

I pass the larger cubby that serves as our food storage slash _extremely_ small cafeteria and head into Gumball's room on the other side of the hall.

Gumball sits on his rusty stool and hunches over a pile of metal panels and stripped wires. I sigh, "Trying to get it to work again?"

Setting a straightened out paper clip onto the table, Gumball sighs in response. "Yes," he says exasperatedly. "If I don't get this to work, how will we safely find out if there's other groups out there?" He looks down at his paper clip, "And why can't we ever find a decent pair of tweezers! I can't handle the microchips easily without them!"

I shrug and fly deeper into the room, setting myself on top of his work bench. "I look for some every time, but I guess people weren't big on tweezers before the shit hit the fan." There was a pair of tweezers in my bathroom at home, but thanks to our new _friends_ I don't have a home anymore.

Gumball pushes his pile of junk towards me, "We need this. We need this radio. If I can make contact with someone out there, I don't know. Maybe we can join forces, find a safer place than this. It's only a matter of time before a random scout finds out where we are. But I can't get it to work. I don't know what's wrong!"

I've gotten pretty good at reading Gumball over the past few years, and I know not to argue with him now; he'd just deny any and every logical thing I'd say in his pouty fit. I don't think anyone will ever find these caves. Our community has grown to almost seventy, and we've gone undetected for years now. We only have one entrance, and it's under a huge rock in the huge valley between our mountain and the neighboring one. Finding our caves would be the worst game of I-Spy ever. "Well," I start, trying to push the conversation along, "you want me to go out on a run, I assume?"

Gumball walks over to a pile of paper in the corner. "Yes, by my calculations, we will be out of food in a week. I'd rather be a little more proactive than last time and not force everyone to only eat a half can of beans every other day."

I run my fingers through my hair embarrassed. The last run wasn't really one of my shining moments. "Alright, I get it. You want me to look for anything special?" I eye the radio, "More scraps maybe?"

Gumball nods, "And tweezers."

"Gotcha, I'll leave now while it's still dark out. Have fun in your dork –"

"Don't even finish."

I fly out of the room and make my way towards the cave entrance, through the labyrinth of dimly lit halls that are home to so many. In a few short seconds I reach the one boulder that separates all of us from the outside world. I'm the only one that has made regular trips outside of the cave in the past three years. Everyone else has either gone numb to the yearning for the past or insane for the same reason. Being cooped up in a place like this does wonders to a person's mind. I shift the boulder to the side, breathing in the fresh air that bursts through the crack, reminding me why I love these runs so much. Squeezing through the space between the boulder and the hole to the cave, I emerge into the moonlit valley and replace the boulder into its secure and inconspicuous position. I hover close to the ground and frequently look back to make sure the boulder wouldn't draw any unwanted attention while I am away. After I gather enough confidence to feel that none of those dimwitted monsters would think twice about the rock, I turn invisible and fly higher, speeding up in the direction of one of my favorite hunting grounds.

Looking down on the mountain is always a picturesque scene. The mountains come together and form the valley and running through it is a river where we get all of our fresh water. I turn away from my mountain home and head toward the grasslands. I've picked clean a lot of the nearby shops and gardens, so I have to reach out a little more to get the good stuff, like canned foods and the occasional weapon. We are definitely in no position to fight, but I like to collect various swords and knives. A dude has to have a hobby, right?

The mountains eventually become dark shadows far behind me, and I begin to scan the area for any untouched stashes. After Aaa was first attacked, the enemy army – or the Salvation as they like to call themselves – set up a ton of posts where they could restock ammo or just hang out. More of these stations popped up when the Salvation was actually successful in taking over the kingdoms of Aaa. As the time went on, though, there weren't so many people roaming around to imprison, so the army abandoned the stations on the outer parts of Aaa and centered more around the Ice and Candy Kingdoms. _Why?_ You might ask? No one knows. All anyone knows is one day, the Ice Queen showed up with an army and a guy in a cloak, and started massacring the place – especially the Candy Kingdom. I have had ample time to think about why this might have happened, and I do have multiple theories. Maybe this was Ice Queen's more violent attempt to get Gumball or maybe that cloaked guy wants a piece of him. Either way, whatever they want is in the Candy Kingdom. What else could explain all the time they've spent over there doing Glob knows what?

I shake the thoughts from my mind and spot one of the stations, apparently as abandoned as the other stations I've raided. Just to be safe, I remain transparent and look through the dirt-caked windows. Nothing. Trying the front door, I notice that it's locked. That's weird. Have the doors always been locked? I peer through the glass one more time and, again, don't see anything besides huge crates of cans and even some blankets resting on a counter. Score! Ignoring the locked door, I punch the window nearest to the lock and flip the deadbolt. I invisibly walk inside, watching for any movement.

When I don't see any, I begin rummaging through the crates and take a mental note of what all is here. Cans of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and even some of that weird stuff the candy people eat so much of fill the crates. "Awesome," I say to myself. I almost can't wait to see the kid's faces when I bring these home. Moving the crates by the door, I move my attention to the blankets on the counter. Touching the soft material, I think about the blankets some of the people have been using in the caves. Some use flour sacks, others have resorted to homemade blankets made of anything that can be torn apart and tied together – cardboard being the most popular material. I swing open a cabinet under the counter and find pillows. "Yes!" I exclaim. I reach for the pillows and suddenly stop when I hear a shuffling in the adjacent cabinet. Looking at my grey hands against the yellow-white pillows, I realize I've become visible once more. I back away, and the shuffling in the cabinet seems to die down. Maybe it's just a rodent?

Before I can reach again for the pillows, a cabinet door opens to a crack and closes just as quickly as it opened, like someone accidentally pushed too hard on the door from the inside.

I get my fangs ready, preparing to tear apart anyone who might be trying to get in my way, and swing the door open to find a crouching, blue thing waiting to pounce.

Before the cabinet is fully open, the blue creature lunges out of the small cubby-hole and grabs my arms, which I outstretched to grab the creature. We spin around, and it scratches my skin, leaving bloody trails. I bare my fangs and aim for anyplace I can sink my teeth into. I grip its shoulders hard, and it's finally unable to squirm. Bending down, I feel its body go limp before I even touch my fangs to its skin, and I lean back to examine what happened.

Now that I have a chance to see the creature, I realize it's a girl. Just where she's from is beyond me. She has blue skin covered in blotches of pink and purple, and her hair is long and just as blue as her skin. Her clothes are tattered, so she might be on the run, but she looks to only be a kid. I look closer at her face, and see trails of darker blue where her tears are streaming down her face. "Are you going to stop?" I ask her. She doesn't respond but turns her head away. "Will you attack me again if I put you down?"

She turns back a little, and I see that her eyes are as red as my shirt. Beyond the shocking color, I see a gleam of hope. "What if I do?"

I laugh, "I just might kill you." I watch as her face goes unchanged.

"Fine. I won't try anything."

"Swear it."

Now she looks incredulous, "What?" She says flatly.

"Swear to Grob, Gob, Glob, and Grod that you won't attack me. I mean it."

Her red eyes roll, "How about you just kill me." I give her a questioning look, as if saying _Really? Is that what you_ really _want me to do?_ "Fine," she exclaims exasperatedly and seemingly confused, "I swear."

"You swear to what?"

She wriggles around a little bit, and I have to tighten my grip, which is increasingly difficult with the deep gashes in my arms. "I swear to Grob, Gob, Glob, and Grod! Jeez!"

"Alright," I mumble as I set her back on the ground. She watches me carefully, as if _I_ might be the one to attack. I'm hoping that that ridiculous swear to Gob bit will get her to ease up a little bit. I've become pretty good at dealing with kids, in case I haven't mentioned that yet. I return her suspicious gaze for a minute while I figure out what I want to say. I mean to say something like _So, what brings you to an abandoned station_ or something logical like that, but instead exclaim, "Ow!" The cuts on my arm are really starting to sting now. I look around for anything that might be useful in bandaging it up. The only thing that looks promising are the distastefully yellow pillow cases. I sit on the floor near the door and rest my head against the wall, thinking about what to do. The girl stands on the opposite side of the room, watching me with extreme curiosity.

After a few awkward eye contacts, I can't help but ask, " _What?_ Why do you keep staring at me?"

She's silent for a long moment. "You're not one of them."

I roll my eyes, "No. I'm not. And I'm all too sure that you aren't either. So, maybe just save your rage for the real enemy."

She slowly walks towards me, watching to see what I do. All I do is watch as she pulls a bandage from her backpack. She hands it to me. "Sorry," she whispers, "I really thought you were one of them."

I take the bandage from her blue hand and begin wrapping my arm up, all too happy to use something other than the pillow cases. "Thanks, that was one hell of slash. What'd you use? Your fingernails?"

She pulls out a knife she had replaced in its sheath by her side, she shows me the bloody blade. "My father gave it to me." A flash of emotion plays across her face. All I can make out is the threat in her eyes, seemingly telling me that she is not afraid to use the bloody weapon again if need be.

I finish wrapping my arm, "Ah, so where's your dad?" She doesn't say anything, but tries to slyly wipe away new tears from her red eyes. "Hey, it's okay, we don't have to talk about your father. What's your name?"

After a sniffle, she wipes her nose and says, "I really don't think I'm supposed to talk to strangers. Especially really creepy strangers that don't seem to want to let kids leave his hideout."

"This isn't my hideout. But I can take you to where I'm actually staying. It's huge, and we have, like, seventy people or something." She looks up at me, deep in the eye, as if searching for any hint of misguidance. "There's other kids there, too. It'd be a lot safer than wandering the grasslands by yourself."

The girl, who is almost half my height, looks down at her bare feet, thinking. Finally she looks back up at me, "My name is Ember."

* * *

 _Thank you for reading! This is the first chapter in a very long story I have been planning in my free time for the past two years now. There are about 27 chapters in this story, and I plan on releasing one chapter per week. Feel free to hound me if I begin to slack. :) Thanks again, I look forward to any and all reviews that may come my way!_


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